Mercyhurst poll: Most Pa. voters don't want to arm teachers

TO LEARN MORE

To see the entire Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics poll on gun control, visit http://polisci.mercyhurst.edu/mcap/mercyhurst-center-for-applied-politics.To see a video of state Rep. Greg Lucas discuss his legislation for arming teachers, visit www.replucas.com.

A new Mercyhurst University poll shows a majority of Pennsylvania's registered voters oppose arming schoolteachers.

The poll, which was released Monday, reported that 56 percent of voters said they do not favor allowing teachers trained in the use of firearms to carry guns in schools. Thirty-seven percent favored the proposal and 6 percent either didn't know or said it depended on the circumstances.

The numbers didn't add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

"Even when you take into account only people who live with a gun in their household, only 51 percent approve of arming teachers," said Joe Morris, director of the Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics, which conducted and released the poll.

The poll, which surveyed 485 registered voters from across Pennsylvania between Jan. 30 and Feb. 6, comes while an area state representative sponsors legislation that would allow teachers to carry firearms in classrooms.

State Rep. Greg Lucas, of Edinboro, R-5th Dist., said the bill he co-sponsors, House Bill 122, is much more specific than Mercyhurst's poll question on the subject.

"My legislation would require school officials to undergo lethal weapons training, the same training police officers currently undergo," Lucas said. "Whether or not teachers and staff would carry guns would be up to each school district. My thought is that they would be locked in a safe, or secured in the main office."

House Bill 122 is currently in the Education Committee, Lucas said. It's not known if it's scheduled to be discussed.

The Mercyhurst poll asked voters questions about various gun-control measures recently mentioned by President Obama in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14.

"We see a wide gap in responses between those who have a gun in their household and those who don't on traditional gun-control measures," Morris said.

For example, 37 percent of those with a gun in their household said making guns more difficult to buy would help prevent mass shootings, compared to 69 percent of those without a gun in their household.

But the gap shrinks for nontraditional measures of preventing mass shootings.

Requiring background checks on anyone who buys a gun was approved by 77 percent of those with a gun in the household and 87 percent of those without one.

"We are not taking a side on the issue of gun control but we feel it's important to have a discussion," Morris said.

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNbruce.

TO LEARN MORE

To see the entire Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics poll on gun control, visit http://polisci.mercyhurst.edu/mcap/mercyhurst-center-for-applied-politics.To see a video of state Rep. Greg Lucas discuss his legislation for arming teachers, visit www.replucas.com.